Manufacturers of various fluid products have found that in some cases it is desirable to provide such products to a user in a package that readily accommodates dispensing of the product and yet protects the product from oxidation or other external contaminants during storage. It may also be desirable to provide such a product in a package that can be operated in any orientation to dispense the product.
A type of package that has been employed to accommodate these requirements includes a flexible, collapsible bag filled with the product under vacuum and attached to a finger-operable pump. The bag is disposed in a protective, but vented, housing which admits atmospheric pressure air into the housing so as to surround the exterior of the bag. The pump has an actuator projecting from one end of the housing where the pump can be operated by the user pressing down on the pump actuator.
Various designs for such collapsible bag packages are disclosed in the patent literature. While such designs may function generally satisfactorily, it would be desirable to provide an improved design for a package that could be more readily manufactured.
In particular, it would be advantageous to provide an improved design which could incorporate a conventional finger-operable pump. Such an improved design should also preferably facilitate the filling of the collapsible bag with the fluid product, attachment of the pump, and assembly of the other package components with a minimum number of manufacturing steps or special manufacturing operations.
In addition, it would be beneficial to provide such an improved dispensing package design that does not require an excessive number of components, that can be assembled relatively rapidly at low cost and without requiring excessively small manufacturing tolerances and assembly tolerances.
It would also be advantageous if various portions of the package components could be relatively easily modified so as to provide various external configurations which may be desired for utilitarian or aesthetic purposes.
The present invention provides an improved set of components for assembly as a dispensing package which can accommodate designs having the above-discussed benefits and features.